


where were you when her light flickered out?

by MicahBoi



Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Canon-Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Spoilers for episode 9, because it fucking DESTROYED me, so my coping mechanism is to make myself cry more
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:28:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24673873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MicahBoi/pseuds/MicahBoi
Relationships: Liam Wilhelmina Jawbreaker & Jet Rocks, Ruby Rocks & Jet Rocks
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	1. Theobald

Theobald is not immediately aware of the bastard princess’s demise. He is locked in a room with the corpse of his best friend, chest heaving in anger and sorrow, in grief and a building desire for any sort of revenge he might enact, any way he can avenge Toby’s murder. Sugar-sweet tears burn in his eyes as he turns his attention to the door. It explodes outward.


	2. Liam

Liam is kneeling beside Jet’s bleeding body in the blackness of the rope trick. He does everything he can, trying to staunch the bleeding, but the water dagger has done its work. Jet fights for breath beneath Liam’s trembling hands, and her syrup-sweet blood soaks his gloves.

“Tell Ruby I love her.”

Liam looks up to the spectral form of Jet and nods, accepting this final mission. She flickers as her body draws in another rattling breath, blood foaming and bubbling against dark lips.

“And tell her she did the right thing.”

And with that, her body goes still under Liam’s hands. Liam chokes back a sob. First Lapin, then Preston, and now Jet. Will he lose everyone who has shown him any kindness these past few years?


	3. Amethar

Amethar is falling. He has been falling for eternity and will continue to fall forevermore, Calroy’s poison corroding his body. Traitorous. He’d been his dearest friend, his confidant. _Traitorous._

And then he sees the pinprick of red light, coming over the bridge from Dulcington. That colour is familiar. The Locket of the Sweetest Heart. One of his girls.

And as Amethar continues to fall, the tiny light flickers and goes out.

She’s gone. One of his girls is gone.

The rage fills Amethar’s body, burning like flame, and the grief hurts him more than any water dagger ever could, more than the Pontifex’s words in the cathedral, more than the thought that Manta Ray Jack might have been dead. More, perhaps, than even Calroy’s betrayal. He should _be_ there for his daughters. They should not be bleeding, dying, while their father falls a thousand miles away. The Unfallen. The Unfallen.

He strikes the earth like a meteor, shaking with rage, pop rocks crackling and burning from his skin. In his mind’s eye, he sees the light go out, again and again and again.

He can almost hear Ruby’s scream.


	4. Ruby

Ruby is running. She hates herself for it, but she knows that her best option is to get help. To get someone stronger. They’re just kids, she and Jet and Liam. They should have listened to Caramelinda. Should have just gone to bed. Then perhaps Jet wouldn’t be bleeding in a dark attic while Ruby gasps for air, trying to ignore the stitch clutching at her diaphragm as she pushes herself up the road.

She can see the bridge, and Castle Candy just beyond. The Locket of the Sweetest Heart thumps against her chest, the soft red light within flickering weakly. She pushes herself harder, faster, into a dead sprint as she can feel the mixed blood and sweat coating her skin, sweet and salty and oh Bulb above she’s getting _cold_.

She’s nearly across the bridge when she feels something inside her break, and at the same moment the light in her locket goes out. 

_Jet._

Ruby staggers and falls to the dirt, on hands and knees and gasping for breath, feeling as though she’s died with her sister. A choked sob wrenches its way from deep in her chest.

Ruby sits by the side of the road, and she is dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is, admittedly, my favourite.


	5. Jet

Jet knows from the instant the dagger enters her body that she is not going to make it out of this attic alive. _Ruby. Ruby needs to live._

She tells her sister to run. Ruby hesitates a fraction of a second longer, and Jet hears her breath hitch in a sob as she goes invisible and bolts.

Liam wraps an arm around her waist, disappearing with her into the rope trick, and it’s somehow even darker than the attic had been. There, at least, she had some sense of direction. Here, she can’t tell up from down, can’t tell whether or not she’s breathing, can’t tell if the heat in her abdomen is her imagination or the corrosion of water melting through sugary flesh.

She chokes on blood and water, the heat of her locket against her chest the only thing grounding her, holding her to the thought that for now her heart beats, for now she is alive. She knows she won’t last long.

“Tell Ruby I love her.”

She’s outside her body now, looking down on Liam cradling her own bloody form, and he looks up to her and nods weakly, tears in his eyes.

She knows she’s dead. 

“And tell her she did the right thing.”

She watches her body go still, and for a moment she doesn’t move. This can’t be real, can’t _possibly_ be happening, but then she feels a hand on her back and a voice in her ear.

“Good job, soldier.”

Jet turns to see Rococoa standing behind her, and her aunt gives her a soft smile, eyes warm and halfway between pride and sorrow.

“You got her home. Ruby’s gonna be alright.”

Jet nods, tears threatening to spill over at the mention of her sister. _Ruby's gonna be alright._ “Thank you.”

“Work’s not over. You ready?”

“I mean....” Jet takes in a shuddery breath, glancing back to Liam and her body, but time seems to have stopped briefly on the mortal plane and she turns back to her aunt with a smile. “Yeah. That sounds awesome.”


End file.
